


Dark Wings

by Lady_in_Red



Series: The Lion of Lannister [3]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Ficlet, Gen, Post Season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 10:43:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7505170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_in_Red/pseuds/Lady_in_Red
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A message from the North forces Jaime to make a decision about Cersei's ultimatum.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dark Wings

Jaime did not look up when the door opened. Writing took concentration unless he wanted a maester to copy it legibly, and the fewer people knew that the Casterly mines were running dry the better.

“I have not found a wife for you, Bronn. You'll have to make do with whores awhile longer.” The sellsword was testing his patience, needling Jaime unrelentingly about his unfulfilled promises and his newly-confirmed status as the most sought after lord in Westeros. No fewer than three ravens had arrived today from lords eager to seek favor with the queen through her brother.

“This ain’t about my lady. It’s about yours.”

Jaime’s gut clenched. What had Cersei done this time? 

A tightly rolled scroll of parchment dropped to the desk between them. The seal was unfamiliar and broken. A ship with something round on the sail. An onion? “I don’t recognize that sigil.”

“I never was any good with those. The message is for you. I got the feeling the lady didn’t want your sister to get wind of it.” Bronn settled into a chair in Jaime’s line of sight. His expression was grim.

Jaime snatched up the parchment and used his gold hand to hold one side as he unrolled it. His eyes scanned swiftly down to the bottom.

> _ Lady Sansa Stark _

Damn. For a fraction of a second, he’d hoped… “No, she wouldn’t want Cersei to see this.”

Jaime started reading again.

> _ Ser Jaime, _
> 
> _ I received Lady Brienne’s message that she had reached Riverrun and failed to secure the Blackfish’s support. I have had no further word from her and must assume that she was taken hostage or killed when the castle fell. If Lady Brienne is in your keeping, I ask you to release her and her squire. If she is dead, I ask you to tell me so I may send word to her father. _
> 
> _ Please direct your reply to Ser Davos Seaworth. _
> 
> _ Lady Sansa Stark _
> 
> _ Winterfell _

Jaime’s mouth went dry. “She never made it to Winterfell.” Memories of their trek through the Riverlands flooded his mind. It was colder now, and the smallfolk were starving and desperate. Worse than the Bloody Mummers would be prowling the roads between Riverrun and Winterfell.

Bronn eyed him too closely for Jaime’s taste. “Did the Freys take her? When they took the castle?”

“No.” Jaime rose abruptly and tossed Sansa’s message into the fire. “She used the Water Gate. I saw her rowing away.”

“You didn’t stop her.” 

“What was I supposed to do? Take her to the Twins, introduce her to Walder Frey? She would have run him through.” Not that it mattered, since someone had opened his throat the day after Jaime left the castle. More evidence of a conspiracy against them, according to Cersei.

Bronn poured himself a hefty cup of wine and drank half before he spoke again. “Maybe the wench should stay lost. Then she can’t champion the Stark girl.” 

“I can’t just leave her out there,” Jaime snapped, hackles raised. 

The sellsword’s eyebrows raised. “But you can bring her back here to face the Mountain? The cutthroats would be kinder.” 

Most days Jaime appreciated Bronn’s endless pragmatism. Today he loathed it. Brienne had been distracted by Jaime when Hoat’s men took them, and unwilling to run and leave him behind in his chains. She would fare better without him, unless she took a fancy to protecting someone else. 

“Cersei will send someone else if I don’t go. She sees enemies everywhere and she’s testing me.”

Bronn snorted. “For an oathbreaker, you’re the most stupidly loyal man I’ve ever met. It’s going to get you killed.”

The ring of truth in his words was the only thing that checked Jaime’s temper. “That’s why I’ll take you with me.”

“If there’s enough gold in your purse,” Bronn agreed sourly, though Jaime could tell he wanted to say more.

He found a clean scrap of parchment and started to laboriously write. “Take this to the rookery. Wait until the maester sends it.”

> _ Lady Sansa, _
> 
> _ I last saw Brienne rowing safely down the Red Fork, returning to you. _
> 
> _ Send word to me at Darry if the lady returns to you. I am coming north to search for her. _
> 
> _ Lord Jaime Lannister _

Cersei wanted him gone, and the thought of Brienne lost or hurt in the thrice-damned North made Jaime ache to swing a sword again. To step between her and anyone trying to hurt her, though she’d never thank him for it. Bloody stubborn woman. 

Bronn was right about one thing. Brienne would be safer if he never saw her again.  

 

* * *

  
The high table bustled with laughter and talk. Jaime had been seated beside Lady Amerei Frey, the girl Lancel had spurned when he joined the Faith Militant. She was a pretty thing, unlike most of her Frey cousins, though Jaime had seen Edmure’s Roslin, and behind her tired eyes and drawn face, he’d seen that she must have been lovely once. She hadn’t been surprised when her grandfather refused to allow her to travel to the Rock with Edmure. Jaime had been surprised when Edmure refused to go without her.

Lady Amerei seemed to realize she wasn’t keeping Jaime’s attention. She touched his golden hand, as if he could feel it, and pressed her full breasts against his arm. And she giggled. Why did women giggle so much?

“My lord, a raven has come for you.”

Relief coursed through Jaime as he took the parchment scroll from a steward and excused himself from the table. Bronn sidled into his seat, leaning in close to make Lady Amerei laugh again. The girl was known as Gatehouse Ami, according to Ser Lyle Crakehall, a childhood friend and one of Jaime’s most trusted captains. He said she raised her portcullis for any passing knight. 

Jaime had no interest in the girl, no matter how many times she’d trailed her fingers up his thigh and made suggestive comments during dinner. Bronn was welcome to her. The sellsword had become more and more vocal in his impatience since Riverrun. Perhaps a night or two with a highborn girl would distract him long enough to complete this campaign. They were still a fortnight from Winterfell, possibly more depending on how much snow they encountered.

The parchment clutched in Jaime’s hand bore the Lannister seal. Cersei was likely already impatient for her spectacle of gore and vengeance. The ravens had been busy here at Darry. A missive was waiting for him when they’d arrived, this one a direwolf in white wax.

> _ Kingslayer, _
> 
> _ The North has no interest in playing the game of thrones while the true threat lies beyond the Wall. You may bring no more than twenty men with you north of Moat Cailin. If I hear word of a Lannister army in the North your life will be forfeit. _
> 
> _ Bring Lady Brienne back to Winterfell if you find her. My sister worries for her. _
> 
> _ Jon Snow, King in the North _
> 
> _ Winterfell _

Jaime did not know what to make of the boy’s vague warnings about danger beyond the Wall, nor how Snow had managed to desert the Night’s Watch and rally the Northern lords to his cause. Jaime had been so focused on the dangers surrounding Cersei that he had little knowledge of what was happening elsewhere in the realm. He would not be dissuaded by tales of monsters and specters. Jaime knew too well what kind of men traveled the roads these days, and they were monstrous enough. 

In the privacy of his chambers, Jaime unrolled Cersei’s message. The writing was spiky and hurried, ink blotched and smeared on the parchment, dark as dried blood.

> _ Jaime, _
> 
> _ Targaryen ships coming. Three dragons flying with ships from Dorne, Highgarden, and the Iron Islands. _
> 
> _ Come at once. Help me. Save me. I love you. I love you. I love you. I need you as I have never needed you before. Come at once. _
> 
> _ Queen Cersei Lannister _

The army could not march back in time. Jaime might reach the Red Keep before the dragons did, but only if he rode back alone. Even with him at her side, the end was inevitable. Cersei had always been reckless when cornered, bent solely on survival, damn the consequences. Fire and blood. Two queens soaked in it, and the city would be reduced to ruins around them. 

Jaime stood and crossed to the fire. Cersei’s message burned to ash.

 


End file.
